The cigar city is getting another cigar store.

Casa de Montecristo, the high-end brick and mortar retail operation of Imperial Brands, plc—will be partnering with Tampa Humidor to bring a franchise location to south Tampa. This will be the fifth franchise store with the Casa de Montecristo name—joining locations in Boynton Beach, Fla.; Countryside, Ill.; Las Vegas and Miami—and the 21st store brick and mortar store associated with Imperial Brands and its Tabacalera USA subsidiary.

The Tampa location is on S. Howard Street, a location Tampa Humidor has been planning for around a year. It is formally known as Casa de Montecristo by Tampa Humidor and is scheduled to open in June.

Imperial is the owner of Altadis U.S.A., which sells Montecristo, Romeo y Julieta and other brands in the U.S.—and JR Cigar, a retail operation with focus on internet and mail-order sales.

The company also formally announced new locations in Austin and Nashville, both of which are Imperial-owned stores. The Nashville location is 3,200-square-feet and is scheduled to open in April in the Gulch neighborhood. It will feature a bar with full liquor service.

As for Austin, it will open in May. The 3,800-square-foot location features an outdoor patio and a bar, though the company has not been specific as to what services the bar will offer.

There will be 11 stores featuring the Casa de Montecristo and five using the JR Cigar name. The company has said it is looking into rebranding more of the JR Cigar locations into Casa de Montecristo stores.

  • Austin, Texas — Casa de Montecristo (to be opened)
  • Burlington, N.C. — JR Cigar
  • Dallas, Texas — Casa de Montecristo
  • Detroit, Mich. — JR Cigar
  • Houston, Texas — Serious Cigars (Champions)
  • Houston, Texas — Serious Cigars (Galleria)
  • Houston, Texas — Serious Cigars (JFK)
  • Houston, Texas — Serious Cigars (Webster)
  • Mooresville, N.C. — Casa de Montecristo by JR Cigar
  • Nashville, Tenn. — Casa de Montecristo (to be opened)
  • New York, N.Y. — Casa de Montecristo by Cigar Inn (2nd Ave.)
  • New York, N.Y. — Casa de Montecristo by Cigar Inn (73rd Street)
  • Paramus, N.J. — JR Cigar
  • Selma, N.C. — JR Cigar
  • Washington D.C. — Casa de Montecristo by JR Cigar
  • Whippany, N.J. — JR Cigar
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Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.